“That felt…”

Emily muttered as she came out from her bath. She appeared from the balcony as I sat facing away from it, toward my wardrobe. Noticing her, I put the phone down on my bedside table and turned around, sitting cross-legged above my bed. She wore a simple pink T-shirt along with white shorts. She saw me and approached me, sitting above something. I couldn’t tell where she actually sat on, or where I sat on in her view, but from my viewpoint, she sat on the same bed across from me, facing me.

I assumed our beds happened to be aligned and repositioned myself. I went toward the top area, where my pillows were, and leaned back on the wall. She reached for something on her head and started shaking it. I could see her previously wet hair being dried.

"... What?"

"Ah, nothing."

I turned myself away from her and reached for the phone.

"Why are you looking away?"

Emily asked. I could only shrug. Truth be told, I would love to look at Emily drying her hair. As weird as it sounds, I found simple things like that to be more interesting, but I knew staring at her would make her uncomfortable, and made the entire ordeal more unbearable compared to how it was currently, so I decided against it.

I searched my mind for an excuse that I could use.

"No reason."

Eventually, I settled on that. I opened my Fine app and searched for Caleb's name. I typed in my message but then turned toward Emily.

"Is it fine if I ask my friend about this?"

"You're not going to ask your mom?"

"I… don't know."

I had concerns about how my mother would react when she heard that her son technically lived with a girl. While it wasn't something of my choice, it would still be weird.

"Will they even believe it?"

"You're right…"

Caleb would probably be laughing at me if he heard this. Since Emily wasn't visible, there would be no way they ever believe me. If anything, my parents would be the ones to believe me, but I really couldn't tell how they would react, and I didn't like the idea of finding out.

"If we don't ask anyone, then what should we do?"

"Can't we ask anonymously online? Maybe someone had the same experience as us?"

"Won't they just laugh at us?"

Emily turned around and hopped off the bed.

"They will, that's why we’re anonymous."

She headed toward my desk and sat down on an invisible chair, a portion of her body inside the table. She looked to be opening her laptop and started typing something. All I could see was her 'pretending' to sit and type, so the sight felt very off.

Like a mime performing a show, Emily's finger ran through the invisible keyboard, typing what I assumed to be lines of text in some social media somewhere.

"Photogram?"

I asked. It was the only social media site where I followed her, but we didn't really interact. We lost connection ever since we parted ways for high school.

"No. Eddit."

"I see."

Eddit was a large forum site that was blocked in this country, so she probably used VPN to access it. I lay on my bed, looking at her back that faced me. Now that we both had calmed down, I could look at the entire ordeal with a clearer lens. This entire meeting felt bittersweet. Bitter because obviously both of us would prefer some more, no, a lot more privacy, but saying that it was all hell wouldn't be right either.

Had this weird phenomenon not fallen upon us, we wouldn't be talking again, and thus the sweet part.

"Uploaded."

She said, turning her head back toward me.

"Say, Simon, on the small chance where someone actually has a solution…"

"Hmm?"

She looked to be fidgeting for some reason, so I pulled myself up.

"If… if we were separated again, will you contact me?"

"Of course."

If we were separated and things turned to normal, she would be the first one I would contact. I would make sure that she was alright.

"Good… to know."

She mumbled her words and turned back toward her device.

"I need to do some work, so excuse me."

"Okay."

I got off the bed and headed for my work desk. I opened my own laptop and turned it on. I checked my Fine and received notifications on a task from a classmate.

Setting the minor inconvenience of having a girl in my bedroom aside, I concentrated on the work on my hands.

"ARGHHHHH!"

I was finishing up my tasks when I heard Emily’s sudden shriek. I turned her away. She realized what she just did and turned toward me.

“Is everything alright?”

Of course things weren’t, I knew that much. If things were alright, she wouldn’t scream in the first place.

"Ah, sorry!"

She looked at me and put her palms together. I let out a wry smile and scratched my cheeks.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“That reminds me, actually. You’re normally not very loud, are you?”

“I’m much, much louder compared to you.”

“Yeah.”

I wasn’t fond of people who screamed from the top of their lungs every time they spoke, but despite being an outgoing and active girl, I didn’t feel that way about Emily. She wasn’t loud, though, just an extrovert. I let out a chuckle.

“Sorry for disturbing you.”

“Nah, it’s fine.”

I waved my hands.

“I’m almost done anyway.”

Despite saying that, I actually have more tasks at hand. I just finished one that has today as the deadline. The second one had a longer timeframe, so I was lucky. I checked the time, then got off my chair.

“Where are you going?”

Emily asked as I dragged her around. I went to my kitchen and opened a mini-fridge tucked in the corner. Since I dragged her away from my balcony, now she was sitting inside my bed, as in actually inside. Her butt was sitting on top of the bed, but her feet entered through it as if I had my own personal ghosts. I couldn’t help but wonder where I was from her point of view.

“Cooking dinner.”

“Now that you mention it…”

Emily stood up and stretched her limbs. She got off her chair and started walking somewhere.

“I’ll cook too. Up for a challenge?”

I smirked hearing her words.

“Of course.”

I took a cabbage from my fridge and started slicing them up. I put them in a separate bowl while Emily started moving around me, sometimes walking away but at other times passing behind me. At some point, she even needed to walk around me. I was careful to not hit her with anything I was holding, especially since I used a sharp knife to chop the cabbage.

“What are you cooking?”

Emily asked.

“Isn’t this a competition?”

I replied. She looked blankly at me for a few seconds, before nodding her head.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

I then cleaned the cabbage with running water. I took it and cut it into thin pieces, put them into water, and let them cook.

“... Instant noodles, really?”

“Yeah. I’m not in the mood to cook.”

“And you’re challenging me?”

“Like yours is any better.”

We sat at our respective desks. After our separate movements, Emily somehow ended up being in my toilet. I opened my toilet door so I could see her as I ate in the kitchen. I cooked cabbage soup and rice for the night while Emily cooked instant noodles.

“At least I prepared them myself.”

“I thought you were joking when you said you were cooking. I wasn’t expecting… that.”

She answered, looking at her phone. I had sent her a picture of my soup through her new Fine contact that I had added just now, and she sent me a picture of her instant noodle at the exact same time.

“You know, I think it’s even better if you cooked instant noodles.”

“They’re not healthy.”

“But they don’t taste like salt.”

I only put salt into my soup, and while it was true that it tasted… well, not good, it was way healthier compared to instant noodles.

She put her phone down and started slurping her noodles. I could see her mouth movements and her hands pinching a fork or maybe a spoon. I mixed my portion of the rice into my soup and started eating it.

“You can eat that? I’m impressed.”

“I have no choice.”

While I couldn’t say I hated cooking, it wasn’t a hobby of mine, and compared to others, I had a higher tolerance when it came to food. I can eat something regardless of how bad it tasted. Besides, considering what happened today, it would be natural that neither of us had the mood to cook something special.

“Do you always eat instant noodles?”

I asked, but she shook her head.

“No. I usually cook simple dishes and more complicated ones when I’m in the mood for it, but when I do cook something simple, I don't make something that simple.”

“Hey, as long as I can eat it.”

“Yuck.”

She made a face of disgust. I really didn’t understand her, it was just soup, after all, nothing harmful.

“Sigh… why not try proper cooking?”

“Too lazy.”

I answered matter-of-factly. I could cook something better. I felt confident with my skills to make something tasty, but that wasn’t the issue. For one, preparing tastier, complex dishes took more time, time that I can spend doing something else. It also required more money, which meant more money down the drain, literally. As long as I maintained a diet I would go just fine.

“Are you a vegetarian?”

I shook my head.

“Meat expensive.”

“That’s… I guess…?”

She said as she twirled her fork inside her bowl. She held her bowl in her left hand, I assumed to keep it in place, her invisible fork or something in her right. The sight hammered down the reality of our weird situation even more. It looked like she was eating air, with things made out of air.

“I would eat them every now and then, maybe twice a week.”

Just because I wasn’t a picky eater, that didn’t mean I had no taste at all. I usually use the money I save from a week of humble eating for something more lavish or expensive. It worked out so far, so I didn’t see why I couldn’t continue doing it. Besides, didn’t the food pyramid say that people didn’t need a lot of meat?

“Still, seeing you eat that… fills me with concern.”

“It’s healthy, so I don’t see why you should be worried.”

“That reminds me, actually.”

I set the bowl of cabbage soup aside and opened the fridge, this time pulling out a half watermelon from it. I didn’t mind cold watermelons, but I prefer something not directly out of the freezer, so I set it aside and took my cabbage soup again.

“What did you just do?”

“Watermelon.”

“You like those? I thought you absolutely hated them.”

“People change, you know?”

A part of my memory came back.

I wasn’t a picky eater, but that wasn’t always the case. I had forgotten when I started to change, but while I had no problem with most vegetables in middle school, the same couldn’t be said for fruits. For a reason that I had forgotten, I absolutely hated most fruits back then, watermelons were among the types I disliked the most. At some point in time, my tastes changed, and now I can eat most fruits without much trouble.

I still remember my parents’ tired faces when they tried to shove watermelon down my throat, sometimes even going as far as putting slices of them into my school lunchbox. Watermelons weren’t the only ones that they put in there, though.

“I really can’t remember why I hated them, though.”

“You said they’re wet. You also disliked soups back then.”

“... How did you remember more compared to me?”

“As a childhood friend, I paid you a lot of attention.”

She said with a little smile.

“Childhood friend, huh?”

I looked down at my soup. I couldn’t recall myself disliking soup back then, but even if I thought hard about it, I couldn’t remember an instance where I found myself liking them. Maybe she was right, it was just that I purposely forgot about those things. Maybe my change in tastes affected me in more ways than one.

“That’s not important, though. It’s in the past.”

She frowned when she heard my words.

“What’s wrong?”

“They’re very important to me, though.”

She looked disappointed, her face making me realize something.

“Ah, I didn’t mean the childhood friend part, but the tastes part.”

Of course, even if we drifted apart, she was still an important person to me. I couldn’t just throw her away or forget about her.

I would gladly forget about my middle school tastes and the childish actions that followed them, though.

“But that’s important too.”

She pouted.

“Huh?”

She shook her head and returned her attention to finishing her meal. I couldn’t get what she was talking about. My past tastes had nothing to do with the person I was now. I was about to ask her for more detail when she stood up and walked away. She threw her bowl into a sink, I think, and walked somewhere.

“I’m going to go back to work.”

“Alright.”

I answered as I saw her slide away from me.

She couldn’t walk far, though, and ended up getting stuck in my bed again.